Thank God for Ryan, who sent his defense on a blitz up the middle and watched in horror as Tebow scooted around left end, past Eric Smith, for the 20-yard TD that gave the Broncos their impossible 17-13 win.

What Tebow could not do, cannot do, with his erratic left arm, he did with his giant heart and his iron will. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and Tebow will find one every time.

He was the winner, and Ryan and Sanchez and the 5-5 Jets were the sinners.

Tebow was magic again with the game on the line, and Ryan’s defense was tragic again when it mattered most.

The flawed quarterback overcame the flawed team against all odds.

He played with what he calls “character, strength and honor” against a fraud team that displayed none of it.

He kept the faith and the Jets may have lost theirs.

“I think it was just a bunch of guys that kept fighting and that had been knocked down a bunch of times but continued to get back up,” Tebow said. “I’m just so proud of those guys for their resiliency, their patience and their determination.”

It should not have surprised anyone that the first touchdown of the night was scored by a 6-foot-5, 315-pound bearded mauler named Matt Slauson, who spotted the football Bilal Powell had fumbled first-and-goal at the 1 early in the third quarter and scooped it up and lunged over the goal-line to make it Jets 10, University of Denver Broncos 3.

The Jets’ braintrust had reluctantly taken the handcuffs off Sanchez when the second half started and he rewarded it by hitting Plaxico Burress over the middle for 30 yards, then Burress again on a pair of slants, and then a screen to Joe McKnight for 12 yards to the 1, before Slauson’s fumblerooski.

The euphoria was short-lived.

Sanchez never took his eyes off Burress and Andre Goodman never took his eyes off Sanchez and the 26-yard pick-six made it a 10-10 game.

McKnight fumbled the ensuing kickoff at the Jets’ 42, but Tebow’s wildly inaccurate left arm stopped the University of Denver Broncos cold.

McKnight, playing in place of Shonn Greene (ribs), redeemed himself on a drive that gave the Jets a 13-10 lead with 9:14 left when he ran twice for 19 yards and took a third-and-9 screen for 14 more.

Tebow started at his 5.

“[Offensive coordinator] Chris McCoy just kept believing, and we’re in the huddle, what we were talking about as an offense is, ‘You want opportunities like this, because there’s an opportunity for greatness as an offense. We haven’t done anything this whole game. But we have an opportunity to do something special right now, and let’s go out there and do it,’ ” Tebow said. “And everybody was focused, and you could see that their will was taking over you as an offense and I think that’s pretty special.”

He would account for all but three of those 95 yards. Misfiring all night, he found Dante Rosario for 26 yards to the Jets’ 26 against Smith. His legs, racing as if this was the chariots of fire, did most of the rest.

Then Ryan called his fateful blitz up the middle.

“I think that was the second time in the game they had blitzed everybody against us, and they were playing the corners pretty hard off, and we were running like a three-vertical concept against them,” Tebow said.

He audibled to max protection.

“Once [Smith] came tight, I just figured he wasn’t gonna think I was trying to get outside and escape, so I just believed that a tackle and tight end were to get the block and that I could try to hopefully outrun him to the edge, and thank the Lord I was able to do so,” Tebow said.

He could have said Thank God for Sanchez and Ryan.

“Watching guys like John Elway and Steve Young have game-winning drives, that’s what you dream of as a little kid,” Tebow said.

His dream. Rocky Mountain Low nightmare for the Jets.

“I’m in shock right now,” Darrelle Revis said.

Asked about Revis’ pregame comments — that the Broncos’ run-first offense can’t work in the NFL and the Jets’ defensive backs had to worry about falling asleep — Tebow chuckled and said: “I think he’s a very good player, and it was an honor to get a chance to play against him.”